Follow the Leader
by RathofDrarry
Summary: A competition as to who is the leader of the Avengers. The one to save the world first shall be crowned victor. Let the seduction, I mean, sabotage, begin. SR/TS, T/L, CB/BB, NR/MH. Probably is going to turn M.
1. Cheerios

"The coffee is mine." Thor smacked Tony's hand as it was reaching towards the coffee pot. "Touch it, and you shall face the consequences!"

"Jeez, it's my house, I get the coffee!" protested Tony, instead reaching for the pancakes.

"Wow, Stark, five-year-old much?" grinned Natasha over her omelet. It was breakfast time in the Avengers household with the Earth's Mightiest Heroes circled around in Tony's kitchen.

"Imagine working with him!" Bruce chuckled, remembering the time when Tony refused to hand him the screwdriver because it was his and not Bruce's. Yes, it had been a peaceful week, giving Tony and Bruce time to perfect Bruce's pants so that they would indeed be stretchable enough for the Big Green Rage Monster. Natasha had killed some mob bosses in their sleep, Thor had gulped down at least fifty cups of coffee which unsurprisingly had no effect over him, and it had been a good week overall.

"Where's Rogers?" Clint was reading the newspaper on the stairs as for some reason sitting down on a chair seemed weird to him.

"I think Fury was talking to him about something…" Natasha called out to him.

"Why him?" Tony rounded on her.

"Don't ask me, ask him, Stark!" She handed him the phone and Tony selected Nick Fury on his contacts list. The dial tone sounded in his ears and he cursed.

"I think we should all go visit him. I'm bored anyway."

"I'm not done my food." Clint called from the stairs. "I think we should take the day-off until Steve gets here."

"I'm the leader, I think we should listen to me." Tony replied calmly.

"Hey, wait a second. You're the leader?" started Natasha.

"I personally think you're way too lit most of the time to be the leader."

"I should be the leader. Is it because you're rich?"

"Whoa, hold up, people. What's going on here?" Steve had just walked into the room to see his fellow Avengers quarrelling.

"Tony thinks he's the leader."

"I am the leader." Tony corrected.

"Hah, Tony, you know I'm Captain America, right? The Captain part sort-of makes me the leader." Steve smirked.

"Hello, you? You don't even know what's going on most of the time. What's a mouse, Steve?"

"A mouse? Like pink-nosed and tail sort?" Steve said, perplexed.

"I shall be the leader of you lot, I am a God, and much stronger than you." Thor said, as if he had settled the matter.

"As Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I believe it best that I choose." Nick walked into the kitchen with Maria tagging along behind him.

"I believe it isn't, you aren't even part of the Avengers!" Bruce sounded.

"The hell I am!" The arguments rose with the fight for the leader being the most important of the day. Maria stood back and watched the Avengers and her boss fight. She sighed and then gave an ear-piercing whistle.

"I know arguing right now is very imperative, but there seems to be a disruption in the Asgard-Midgard monitor." She said when the room finally silenced. The room turned to face Thor.

"It is not I for I have inhabited Midgard for fortnights." His low voice rumbled.

"Who else could be on Earth?" Tony wondered. "Asgard does have Loki in the Isle of Silence, right?"

"Yes, I am sure of it but he does have a nasty habit of escaping whenever I am here." Thor chuckled. Then he gasped.

"Hill, go and see if you can ID Loki on Earth." Fury barked at his assistant. Although the Earth seemed very much in danger if Loki did in fact make a comeback, the Avengers went back to their breakfasts. "Really? None of you are actually going to do anything?"

"It's probably not Loki, I mean, why would he come back if we completely kicked his arse the first time?" Natasha said, a grin playing about her lips.

"Well, Loki is one for revenge." Bruce commented, chewing slowly on his Cheerios.

"He certainly is feisty, I can tell you that." Everyone in the room turned to look at Tony. "What? Did I say that out loud?"

"Stark! That is my brother!" Thor warned.

"Whoa, I've got Pepper, remember? I'm just stating a fact."

"This," snarled Fury, "Is why none of you seem suitable for the role of leader. None of you will take a stand when there is a definite threat. Hmm, maybe I should call in Ant-man."

"He's too busy in the microverse anyway. I have an idea. Why don't we pick from a hat who the leader is?" Bruce proposed.

"No, the probability gives everyone less of a chance!" grumbled Tony from the back of the kitchen where he was rummaging for more coffee that Thor hadn't already consumed. Maria walked back into the kitchen with a frown on her face.

"It's definitely Loki, he seems to be…in a coffee shop in Paris." She stated.

"Okay, I'll go and interrogate him." Said Tony, moving to get his armour from the floor above.

"I'll come with you." Steve stood up from his place next to Natasha.

"Ah, I forgot you magically gained the ability to fly, Rogers." Steve was _just_ about to say something witty, when Maria looked up from her tablet computer.

"Four of the top guarded Super-villain prisons just all simultaneously lost all their security. Now everyone from the Cube, the Raft, the Vault, and Big House is free. And SHIELD just sent a picture of Loki standing in front of the Cube, with Absorbing Man."

"Okay, superheroes!" Fury said with a smile on his face, but what he really was thinking was: "Why me?"

"So I'm going to need you to split up. I think it should go each superhero, the assassins count as one, to a prison, and one of you to confront Loki."

"That would be me. I'm the leader." Captain America grinned.

"Yeah, no, soldier, I'll confront Loki."

"He is my brother! It shall be me!"

"No, wait. I've a better idea. In the next 72 hours, the first person to save the World, shall become the official leader of the Avengers. Now go, before I punch y'all. Maria, could you pour me some coffee?"

A/N

I'm excited about this. Update in a day or two.


	2. Honey

"Do we count as one person?" Clint asked Natasha.

They were sitting together in Natasha's room. Clint was flipping through the channels on her television, finally stopping at Mission Impossible 3. They both were in their supersuits, which is the world's most clichéd thing to call them. Natasha's room had an entire wall covered in guns, everything from Desert-5's to M16's and Clint had hidden a covert stash of arrows in the corner because he spent most of his time at her place.

"Please, Clint, I know we tend to team up most of the time, but I'm going to win this, meaning even if we are one person, I'm going to get Loki before you." She grabbed the remote from him and changed the channel once more.

"Hey! I was watching that!" Clint groaned, and Natasha ignored him.

"But I think it is best that we work together for the moment. I mean we do make a pretty good team." Natasha smiled at him. Clint mentally cursed at his brain as it supplied way too much redness in his cheeks when Natasha looked at him like that. Yes, he was harbouring a crush on the Black Widow, a trained assassin. Did that make him is any way vulnerable to losing the competition? No. Well, at least he thought so.

He gulped and smiled back. "I think so too."

"Hey, look at this!" She gestured towards the television screen. Clint gasped. It was a live video of Thor, in his room.

"How did you even do that?"

"I asked him if I could see his hammer." She explained. Then smacked Clint when he grinned. "No, you idiot! When he went to get precious Mjolnir, I put this near his television."

"Do you have any of the other people?" Clint ventured. This didn't seem at all virtuous, but they were master assassins, what did you expect?

"Please, Tony has JARVIS check his entire building out every hour. And Bruce is observant enough to notice it however small. And Steve's room's under SHIELD protection, I wouldn't dare make Fury…furious." Natasha said, rolling her eyes at Clint laughing at her discomfort from her own pun.

She waited for his chuckles to cease, with her piercing glare. Clint got the message and nodded in understanding. He couldn't help wondering if anyone's done the same to his apartment.

"Have you searched your room yet?"

"Please, I have the strongest security system in New York…besides maybe Tony's." She got and stretched. "Want anything?"

"I'm fine. I'm still full from breakfast." Natasha walked over to the kitchen, and Clint, for the lack of anything to do, stared at the TV.

"Natasha! Come here, look at this!" He called to her, eyes glued on the screen. His eyes reverted to Natasha in her cat suit, carrying a plate of blueberries.

"Oh, look what we have here…" Natasha grinned at the screen, where Thor was currently polishing Mjolnir, only to be disturbed by Bruce walking in. Natasha and Clint watched as they talked, Bruce did most of it, and then shook hands. Sadly, the camera bug did not have any audio, but they still could see enough to get the gist of what was happening. Bruce bid his farewells, and left Thor to his lonesome.

"Looks like we have another alliance on our hands." Clint grinned.

"They can't, they probably already have a plan on their hands. We've got to win, Clint." Natasha stared long and hard at the television screen. "Okay, I'll drop you off at Bruce's, and then I'll go to Thor's."

"What? Why?" Clint looked at her with confusion.

Natasha didn't listen to him but instead went to her library, which she was rather proud of. Most of them were in Russian, but she had some, which she treasured more than others in English. She picked out a book and headed to the door.

"Come on, Barton, I'll explain in the car."

"Why can't we just interrogate them together?" Clint wasn't happy with Natasha' plan.

Natasha was driving because, frankly, she was just better and also because Clint refused to listen to her.

"Because, then they'll know we have alliance. We're spies, Clint, we're good at this."

Clint snorted. He vaguely remember the time when Natasha simply talked to him and then ten minutes later she had found out his e-mail password. He never understood how good she was at charming people into giving her their deepest secrets.

"That's always been you, Natasha, I'm the one who shoots people with arrows. It'll be so awkward trying to pry information for Banner."

"We're here. You'll do just fine, Clint. Bye!" He slammed her car door but then apologized when she threatened to run him over.

He hardly ever talked to Bruce, besides when he fixed one of Clint's arrows, which completely backfired on him when the Avengers took down the Taskmaster last month. And yet, he found himself at Bruce's doorstep. He took at breath and remembered everything Natasha taught him about manipulating people and pressed the doorbell. He waited about three seconds, and was about to turn around and go back downstairs when he heard the door being unlocked.

"Clint?" Clint realized that his thoughts were taking control of him as he had turned around and was about to walk away.

"Hey." Clint forced a smile on his face, his heart thumping. Natasha was counting on him and he knew he was going to spill something. "Bruce."

"Do you want to come in?" Bruce offered in that quiet way of his.

"Thanks." Clint came into Bruce's apartment for the first time.

It smelt like honey. Clint's brain then registered that it wasn't the room, which smelt like honey, but rather, Bruce.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Bruce asked, polite as ever, gesturing to the couch. Clint nodded, as it seemed like an appropriate thing to do. As Bruce walked away into the kitchen, Clint found himself wanting another whiff of honey, but managed to stay put on the couch.

Looking around, Clint saw that Bruce had made a makeshift lab in his apartment, which he seemed to have been working on right before Clint walked in. Bruce came back with some tea for both of them, and sat himself right opposite of Clint. And as he sipped his tea, Clint saw that it was going to be a very, _very_ long afternoon.

**A/N**

**Don't worry, guys, I know you came here for Steve/Tony, but it's coming up….**

**-winks. LOVE YOU BTW, I DID NOT EXPECT SO MANY PEOPLE TO ADD ME ON THEIR STORY ALERTS! Appreciate it! 3 I'll update in a day or two, R&R, loves. **


	3. Awkward

"So, Clint, how can I help you?" Bruce smiled, setting down his teacup.

Clint heard his name, which snapped him out of his daze. The overwhelming smell that was uniquely Bruce was mesmerizing and he seemed to have trouble concentrating on their conversation. This was rather weird, he had never even talked properly to Bruce before, and yet when in such close proximity, Clint was rather drawn in. Maybe he was drugged. The tea? Could it have had something in it? He gave Bruce a suspicious look, and then saw Bruce raise his eyebrows expectantly. Clint realized he was meant to reply.

"I just thought we could hang out…you're a guy, I'm a guy." Clint stuttered. "We never talk but I thought we should be friends."

"That's a good idea," Bruce said slowly. "How would you like to hang out?"

"I guess we should…talk." Clint chose his words carefully. "You seem to be working on something,"

"Oh it's nothing. Just a little project to increase the efficiency rate of the security systems in the Avengers building." Bruce smiled.

"That's very cool." Clint said, the awkwardness building up again. "At SHIELD, the security systems were pretty cool too."

Clint had doubts that it was actually the tea, as it was actually very good tea. And if anyone wanted to ruin good tea, they would do it to oolong tea, and not Bruce's tea.

"I agree, not even HYDRA can get in there."

"But yet, Loki managed too. And if Loki can, I'm thinking Thor can too. How close are you to Thor?" Clint tried his best to be nonchalant, but it didn't work that well.

"Uh, a bit close, I guess. I find the whole travelling-between-dimension thing fascinating."

"Yeah, me too. "

And then a wave of silence enveloped them as they ran out of things to say. Clint couldn't help noticing that Bruce's hair was sticking up at the back in a way that half his brain said was utterly adorable while the other half was beating the first half up.

"Um. Thank you?" Bruce said, with a slightly amused look on his face while flattening the back of his hair.

_Shit. I said that out loud. _

"I need to go to the bathroom." Clint asked, attempting to be casual.

"Down the hall, to the right." Bruce said, leaning back, sipping his tea.

Clint rushed into the hall, which seemed rather barren, with no pictures or liveliness whatsoever, and rushed into the first door. Pulling out his phone, Clint punched in Natasha's number.

"Hi, Thor." Natasha popped two of the buttons on her cat suit before ringing the bell to Thor's apartment. A spy's gotta do what a spy's gotta do.

"Natasha. Please, come in." Thor grinned.

A/N

I'm sorry this is oh-so-very short, but I'm having major writer's block. PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE NEXT. I'm stuck. Update as soon as I figure out what to do.


	4. Hawkward

"Hello?"

"Hey, Natasha, I need help. What do I say to him, we've nothing in common, and it's way too awkward and I don't know what to do." He spluttered.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something here…" Clint registered what she said.

"You're not…are you?" Clint's known Natasha for a long, long time, and he knows that she was famous for...getting it on, on the first date. This generally meant people she was trying to get information out of, as the Black Widow didn't do dates. Why? She tended to killed people after dates.

"He rather seems drawn to it, but not yet I excused myself to the bathroom." She assured him. "What's your game plan?"

"Game plan, Natasha? I have no idea what I'm doing." Clint sighs, his usual tough facade slipping.

"Clint. Just sit next to him, ask him if he's all right, slip a hand onto his thigh and discreetly slip Thor into the conversation." Natasha hissed, as her partner-in-crime was at the moment so utterly helpless. "You can do this!"

"But Natasha-" Clint groans when he hears the click of him being hung up on. Clint took at deep breath and wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. He was the Hawkeye; he looked danger in the eye before taking it out with an arrow. He could talk to a person. It seemed only logical. Slipping out of the bathroom, he saw Bruce lounging on the sofa, legs crosses, with his cup of tea and a leather-bound book.

Following part one of Natasha's supportive advice, he sat next to him, a smile plastered on his face. Bruce looked up at him with his warm brown eyes. What was happening to him? Clint was in love with Natasha, he saved her and gave her a new life, right? Why was Bruce having such an effect on him? Maybe it was just because he wasn't good with people.

"Are you alright?" Bruce asked, scooting slightly towards Clint. Clint slapped himself mentally, Bruce stole Part 2 of Natasha's plan.

"Yeah, thank y-" Before he could finish, one of Bruce's hands had found its way to Clint's thigh.

"So, have you given any thought to what's happening with Loki?" Bruce's hand was rubbing circles on Clint's thigh.

"Uh, me? No, I was just relaxing," Clint would've choked if it weren't for years of training against infiltrators. But oh-God-almighty, Bruce couldn't stop, he couldn't. Clint bit his lip and Bruce did moved closer and closer, his hand reaching higher and higher. His overall closeness was messing with Clint's head.

"Uh-huh? No leads whatsoever?" Bruce's face was inches away from Clint's, and Clint seemed to have lost all feeling.

"Uh…none at all." Clint wanted to back away, he really did, but he just couldn't make himself do it.

Clint suddenly remember the time when due to a deranged gamma-ray induced villain unleashed gamma radiation throughout the world, turning innocent people, not to mention the Avengers into gamma monsters, but Clint was a survivor, and teamed up with Bruce to take them down. Well, he teamed up with the Hulk, but he didn't miss the twinkle in Bruce's eye when he shrunk back down to human. Clint was just so taken aback by Bruce's sudden change in behaviour, and dammit, he was straight, why was he so tempted?

"Anyone you're working with, Clint?" Bruce asked rather huskily. Clint gulped.

Clint had spent so much time pining over Natasha, and Bobbi too, and all those times he spent deciding between saving the world with the Avengers or being a part of SHIELD, he never actually had any time to get some.

"Natasha?" He ventured, giving up, and leaning towards Bruce. His eyes fluttered shut.

"Knew it." Clint's face collided with the sofa as Bruce suddenly stood up.

"What happened?" Clint said, confused as why lovely Bruce had stopped rubbing delicious circles on his thigh and not in close proximity of him. Most people were, he told himself.

"Nothing at all, Clint. Thanks for coming." Bruce grinned a bit too victoriously for someone who Clint was sent to sabotage.

Bruce's words had a certain finality to them, making Clint realized that the open door was a sign for him to leave, and slowly getting up, he exited the room, but somehow couldn't shake off the smell of honey.

"Wait a second." The penny dropped. "Shit. Did I just get duped at my own game?"

* * *

"It's Natasha, though it was slightly obvious, Thor, she's probably trying to get you too." Bruce said into his phone as soon as Clint left.

"Dame Black Widow, Banner?" Thor said, his voice harboring a grave tone.

"Yes, she'll probably be coming over to sabotage our plans, or try to gain information on Loki." Bruce was glad they became a team, Thor knew Loki best, and Bruce could easily track him down.

"I fear that we might be too late, Healer Banner,"

Bruce groaned.


	5. Magnificent

Chapter 5: Magnificent

69 hours until deadline

"Why are we here and not at our dwellings, Banner?" Thor sat across from Bruce in a petite café outside of Stark Tower.

"I have my suspicions that the Black Widow probably has a live feed of us." Bruce stirred his coffee, the cogs working in his brain, formulating a plan.

"I do not understand." Thor's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Romanov has put cameras, or audio devices in our homes. That's how she knew to target us, she knew we were allying."

"Us, Banner? You were seduced too?" Thor looked down at his coffee, embarrassed.

"As I suspected, Barton is working with her. He attempted to pry information from me. Unsuccessfully." Bruce sipped his coffee, his head down to hide his smug look.

"Alas, the widow has learnt some valuable information from me." Thor sighed.

"Did she…you know?" Bruce coughed.

"I'm afraid I do not understand, I know?" Thor looked at Bruce expectantly.

"Never mind. What did you tell her?"

"She asked me why Loki would be at a coffee shop. In..our position, I did not seem the harm in informing her that Xemo was last seen there too, and Loki could have been confiding in him." Thor said nonchalantly. Bruce sighed.

"Okay, so she just stole our place in the game. We need to get a move on. Gather some dirt on the others. But how?" Bruce asked more to himself than Thor, who was happily munching away on a muffin.

"Perhaps the Man of Iron." He suggested.

"I don't think Tony will make any alliances…other than JARVIS. He's way too narcissistic to rely on someone else."

"We are forgetting Captain of America."

"Yes, Steve. If you and I are pairing up, and Clint and Natasha are, you'd think Steve and Tony would combine forces." Thor snorted into his coffee.

"Steve and Tony have too much rivalry, so I believe it better to assume that they shall be working in their lonesome."

"Agreed." Bruce grimaced, leaning back in his chair. "But we really need a move on for our plan against Loki."

"Yes, Banner, Loki is not to be underestimated."

"You know him best, Thor, where do you think he'll hit first?"

"I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea. Loki has changed for the worst. He was so nice when we were children. He was my brother and now he does not want to be."

"Well, he isn't really right in the head, is he?" Bruce assured.

"No, but neither am I, when it comes to him. Oh, curse him and his magnificent face to Helheim!"

"Er, Thor, we generally do not consider other people's faces as 'magnificent'. Especially when that other person is your brother,"

"He is my half-brother. And his face is truly magnificent. Surely you must agree?" Thor seemed confused as to why Bruce was amused from his comments.

"Yeah, well, I'm not entirely into the whole 'Men' thing."

"In Asgard, it does not matter the gender, nor the species." Thor informed, his voice stern, as he slipped some money on the table and gestured for a waiter. "But Banner, what about you and Barton?"

Bruce choked. "What about me and Barton?"

"You seduced him, did you not?"

"It was only for business reasons. Nothing more." Bruce said, brushing off Thor's accusations. As the waiter collected their money, Bruce and Thor got up, and exited the café.

"But didn't you once describe your soul-mate to have curly blond locks and blue eyes?"

"Woman, Thor, woman!" But Bruce's protests were cut short by an earsplitting thud of a piano falling from several metres above. Bruce and Thor looked above to see that for some reason, Tony Stark had decided to chuck a piano from Stark Tower.

**Don't hate me, loves, but I hadn't any Internet until this morning. I also had writer's block. RnR?**


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